Genocide is a term declared an international crime in the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The Convention defines genocide as any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.
a. Killing members of the group;
b. Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
c. Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
d. Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
e. Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
The specific "intent to destroy" particular groups is unique to genocide. A closely related category of international law, crimes against humanity, is defined as widespread or systematic attacks against civilians.
Essential Questions How do people make distinctions between “us” and “them”? Why do they make these distinctions
What is community? How are decisions made about who belongs and who is excluded?
After the Holocaust, the international community said “Never again.” What can we do, as individuals, groups and nations, to prevent massive acts of violence in the future?
Questions (from http://www.genocidetext.net/gaci_discussion.htm) Chapter 1: The Origins of Genocide
How pervasive is genocide in human history? What are the practical obstacles to understanding this aspect of our past?
What are some examples of genocide in antiquity and early modernity?
What role does genocide play in the Old Testament?
What motivated Raphael Lemkin to study what he would come to call "genocide"?
What kind of human groups did Lemkin emphasize in his genocide framework, and which did he tend to downplay? Why?
Do you think political groups should be included in the genocide category? What about social classes and gender groups?
What are the major features, ambiguities, and controversial aspects of the 1948 UN Genocide Convention?
What/who are the major agents, victim groups, goals, and required scale of genocide, according to the diverse definitions provided by genocide scholars?
Discuss the "contested cases" of genocide referred to on pp. 23-28. Which do you think deserve to be considered genocidal, and which do not? Explain your reasoning in each case. Are there other contested/controversial cases that you can think of?
What is "structural violence," and is it worth examining under the rubric of genocide?
Is there such a thing as genocide in self-defense?
Chapter 2: Imperialism, War, and Social Revolution
What is the difference between imperialism and colonialism?
Why is settler colonialism particularly associated with genocide? What about internal colonialism?
What are some examples of imperial famines? Is it legitimate to regard these as genocidal?
Describe the link between imperialism and genocide in (a) the Belgian Congo, (b) Japan's "Greater Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere" before and during the Second World War, (c) the United States in Vietnam, (d) the Soviets in Afghanistan.
Why are war and genocide "the Siamese twins of history" (p. 48)? Do you see a genocidal dynamic in today's "war on terror"?
Why is World War One so central to an understanding of mass violence in the twentieth century?
What is the "barbarization of warfare" associated with the Soviet-German war of 1941-45?
What is the connection between genocide and social revolution, especially with regard to revolutionary ideology?
What is "omnicide"? Do you think the nuclear threat today is greater or lesser than during the Cold War, or about the same?
Chapter 3: The Armenian Genocide
What point was Adolf Hitler making when he said: "Who, after all, talks nowadays of the annihilation of the Armenians?"
What were the major factors contributing to the outbreak of the Turkish genocide against the minority Armenian population? How and why was the context of World War One significant?
What were the dimensions of "eliticide" and "gendercide" in the Armenian genocide?
What was the role of mass deportations in the genocide?
To what extent were the perpetrators of genocide brought to justice after World War One? Why weren't such efforts more successful?
What has been the role of the modern Turkish state and its international supporters in denying the Armenian genocide? Are there any signs that the official Turkish position may be changing?
Chapter 4: Stalin's Terror
What was the nature of the Bolshevik regime installed in Russia in 1917?
How appropriate is the genocide framework to what occurred during the period of forced collectivization and mass famine in the Soviet Union, from 1929 to 1933?
Who were the "kulaks" and why did they suffer under Soviet communism?
What was the "Gulag"? In what ways was it similar to the system of Nazi death camps and concentration camps established during World War Two, and how did it differ?
Why did Joseph Stalin seek to "purge" the Communist Party? What were the results?
Whom did the Soviets target for persecution and mass killing after the invasion of Poland in 1940? What fate was visited upon national minority groups like the Chechens and Crimean Tatars?
On balance, how appropriate is the genocide framework to an analysis of Stalin's actions? Why do some Russians today look back on the Stalinist period with nostalgia?
Box 5A: What are the links between the current crisis in Chechnya and the genocides of the Stalinist period?
Chapter 5: Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge
What was the impact of the massive US bombing campaign against Cambodia in bringing the Khmer Rouge to power?
What were the main features of Khmer Rouge ideology? Who were the principal targets of the regime?
What is "urbicide," and what role did it play in the Cambodian genocide?
What were the major mechanisms by which Cambodians were murdered between 1975 and 1979?
What were the similarities and differences between Democratic Kampuchea under the Khmer Rouge, and the Soviet system under Stalin?
How successful has the post-genocide quest for justice been in Cambodia?
Chapter 6: Bosnia and Kosovo
To what extent can the Bosnian genocide be ascribed to "ancient hatreds"?
What are the historical origins of the Yugoslav state? What occurred in Yugoslavia during World War Two, and how did it factor in the outbreak of mass violence in the 1990s?
What role did nationalist leaders play in the late 1980s and early 1990s?
What criticisms have been made of the foreign (Western European and US) role in Yugoslavia's dissolution, and during the Bosnian war of the 1990s?
What was the "gendercidal" dimension of the Bosnian genocide?
What happened at Srebrenica in July 1995, and why?
In what ways was the campaign in Kosovo in 1998-99 similar to the Serbs' genocidal strategy in Bosnia?
Do you think the Serbs' war against Kosovar Albanians should be considered a genocide?
How successful has the post-genocide quest for justice been in the territories of the former Yugoslavia?
Chapter 9: Holocaust in Rwanda
Who are the Hutus and who are the Tutsis? Is it accurate to talk about "ancient tribal hatreds" between these two groups?
What role did Belgian colonialism play in paving the way for the Rwandan holocaust?
What were the demographic, environmental, and economic factors that may have contributed to the genocide?
What was the essence of the "Hutu Power" ideology advanced by extremists within the Rwandan regime?
What was the impact of the invasion of Rwanda by the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF)? Do you think the RPF should be credited with having stopped the genocide, or blamed for having helped to trigger it?
What role did Rwandan media, especially RTLM radio, play in the onset and implementation of the genocide?
Why was the international community so unwilling to intervene to stop the genocide? What would you have done differently? Why and to what extent was an intervention eventually mounted?
What similarities and differences do you perceive between the Rwandan and Jewish holocausts? In what ways might the Rwandan genocide be considered "unique"?
Discuss the role of ordinary Hutus in perpetrating the Rwandan holocaust.
How successful have post-genocide efforts at justice and reconciliation been in Rwanda?
Why has genocide raged in Congo and Darfur in the 2000s, and why has international intervention so far failed to suppress it?
What is Genocide?
Genocide is a term declared an international crime in the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The Convention defines genocide as any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.a. Killing members of the group;
b. Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
c. Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
d. Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
e. Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
The specific "intent to destroy" particular groups is unique to genocide. A closely related category of international law, crimes against humanity, is defined as widespread or systematic attacks against civilians.
Essential Questions
How do people make distinctions between “us” and “them”? Why do they make these distinctions
What is community? How are decisions made about who belongs and who is excluded?
After the Holocaust, the international community said “Never again.” What can we do, as individuals, groups and nations, to prevent massive acts of violence in the future?
Resources
Genocide Scholars
http://www.genocidescholars.org/resources/teaching.html
Genocide in the 20th Century
http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/genocide/
Oakland Schools - Resources on Genocide
http://urbandreams.ousd.k12.ca.us/lessonplans/genocide/index.html
the Armenian Genocide
http://www.learngenocide.com/
Violence in the Sudan (Darfur)
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/teachers/lessonplans/world/sudan_genocide.html
Genocide: A comprehensive Introduction
http://www.genocidetext.net/
Museum of the Holocaust http://www.ushmm.org/genocide/take_action/genocide
Armenian Genocide http://www.teachgenocide.com/
Genocide Education Project http://www.genocideeducation.org/forteachers.htm
Geniocide Watch - International Campaign to End Genicide http://www.genocidewatch.org/
Talking Points seeds of genocide http://www.ppu.org.uk/genocide/talk1.html
Questions (from http://www.genocidetext.net/gaci_discussion.htm)
Chapter 1: The Origins of Genocide
How pervasive is genocide in human history? What are the practical obstacles to understanding this aspect of our past?
What are some examples of genocide in antiquity and early modernity?
What role does genocide play in the Old Testament?
What motivated Raphael Lemkin to study what he would come to call "genocide"?
What kind of human groups did Lemkin emphasize in his genocide framework, and which did he tend to downplay? Why?
Do you think political groups should be included in the genocide category? What about social classes and gender groups?
What are the major features, ambiguities, and controversial aspects of the 1948 UN Genocide Convention?
What/who are the major agents, victim groups, goals, and required scale of genocide, according to the diverse definitions provided by genocide scholars?
Discuss the "contested cases" of genocide referred to on pp. 23-28. Which do you think deserve to be considered genocidal, and which do not? Explain your reasoning in each case. Are there other contested/controversial cases that you can think of?
What is "structural violence," and is it worth examining under the rubric of genocide?
Is there such a thing as genocide in self-defense?
Chapter 2: Imperialism, War, and Social Revolution
Chapter 3: The Armenian Genocide
Chapter 4: Stalin's Terror
Chapter 5: Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge
Chapter 6: Bosnia and Kosovo
Chapter 9: Holocaust in Rwanda